March 12, 2025

RIO DE JANEIRO - Day 4 - Copacabana Beach & Sugarloaf Mountain

You know I love a good beach! This is one! Even though it was man made. They filled in the shore line area to make the wide spread arch perfect for all the hotels and swanky residential towers across the street. The sand is a powdery and well groomed and the people watching top notch! Volleyball courts line the back of the beach and the most exciting games to watch are footy where they can only use their head and feet for shots. No hands!

After a couple of hours of Beach time we headed to SugarLoaf Mountain tramway. The plan was to be on top of the mountain for sunset. The crowds and weather did not cooperate and the views from atop were largely covered in clouds! The tram ride is two lifts in total and we did manage to see the City lights for night time views when we came back down to the mid point.

By Pat Patrick July 14, 2026
I really enjoyed my first trip to Thailand! On our final morning here we went to try breakfast at this spot, down the road, we had been hearing rave reviews on, King Of Bread . The hype was correct, the breakfast was delicious and they had some unique choices. I had eggs benedict on a croissant, in lieu of the standard english muffin and Bosco had it on Milk Bread, which was equally tasty.
By Pat Patrick July 14, 2026
We love having authentic experiences with locals to really get a chance to see how they live and thrive in the Ports we visit. So when I found a cooking class, by a local woman offered in her home, we were excited to book. Um ( our teacher) picked us and brought us back to our hotel along with the family of 4 from Sydney, Australia, that had also signed up for this afternoon class. Um's house, which has a lovely open air kitchen, garden and dining area, was about a 30 minute drive and turned out to be on the beach, right next to the Grandparent Rocks.
By Pat Patrick July 14, 2026
The nightlife scene doesn't really get going till after 11pm and goes till 5 am in the Chaweng section of Koh Samui . We made our way over to the club district, and one of the hot spots called the ArkBar a little past 10pm to have some dinner, while watching the beach fire shows.